The Power of Choice - Case Study Example

The Power of Choice The most intriguing, dynamic and complex facet of the human physiology is the human brain. The brain is responsible for the cognitive processes that man undertakes, as well as the inventions that man has made for the advancement of his civilization. Recent psychology has taken quantum leaps in uncovering more about how the brain works. Aside from studying the brain as a human organ, it is also being studied as a neuro-computer that processes chemical and electronic signals from all parts of the body, to come up with the appropriate responses to the stimuli that the person experiences. Recent discoveries try to understand the complexities under which the human brain operates. As a result, modern science has taken the initiative of attempting to replicate the manner by which the human brain efficiently operates. Sophisticated inventions and high-powered computers aim to capture the logic that the human brain displays. Moreover, these cutting-edge technologies to encapsulate the manner by which the brain breaks down complex stimuli, to analyze it and give the optimal or most appropriate response to the stimuli that it encountered. The most intriguing of the recent technological discoveries is Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as A.I. These technologies aim to replicate the decision-making processes of humans through the use of logic, by building and analyzing a complex knowledge database. With this mechanism, the machine is not only being programmed to decide, but it is also expected to learn from its mistakes. The build-up of a knowledge database allows the machine to look at its past performance, and to avoid the decisions that will eventually lead it to commit mistakes or suboptimal outcomes. In essence, Artificial Intelligence not only allows the machine to decide efficiently, but it ultimately allows the machine to learn. From this point, a number of questions, bordering on the scientific and the philosophical, naturally arise. Can machines think and know' Why are machines more efficient in performing some tasks than humans' Can Artificial Intelligence eventually surpass human knowledge and reason, as we know it' These questions provide a starting point to a more useful but more fundamental inquiry - what constitutes knowledge. An excerpt from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged eloquently explains the process by which knowledge is acquired: Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason his is only means to gain it. Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. The task of his senses is to give him the evidence of existence, but the task of identifying it belongs to his reason; his senses tell him only that something is, but what it is must be learned by his mind. (934) Rand's excerpt leads us to conclude that the process of acquiring knowledge involves perception, identification and integration. Perception is the act by which humans absorb external stimuli from its environment. A man becomes aware of the existence of the existence of an external object, through his five senses. This awareness of reality is referred to as consciousness - man is made aware of external objects, and he perceives these through his senses. As Rand's excerpt explained, the senses give evidence to the existence of reality. The dynamic nature of the human sensory functions allows humans to perceive and process more sources of external stimuli. The human senses can perceive different and dynamic combinations of stimuli that affect any, or even all of the five senses. The data reception of machines, on the other hand, can be likened to the human sensory functions. Machines and computers can be programmed to receive specific varieties of stimuli. Compared to humans, the sensory programming of computer receptors is rather specific and specialized, thus limiting the perception abilities of the machine to those that are defined by the machine's maker. Once a machine encounters a stimulus that is not part of the stimuli that was defined by its program, the machine will not readily process the stimulus and will simply classify the stimulus as unknown. Humans create sets of programming commands for computers through the use of binary language. Through this language, the set of specific commands are codified into mathematical terms, such that the computers can easily understand the commands. With this, machines and computers can readily process information that is mathematical in nature. Other types of knowledge that the machine will have to absorb, will therefore have to be modeled, translated and codified in the binary language, for the machine to be able to understand and process the pieces of information. For example, pieces of information such as an answer to a test question or a distance between two geographical areas, should be correspondingly codified in binary language terms, for the computer to be able to understand and absorb them properly. The advancement of the machine's perceptive abilities therefore relies on man's increasing ability to translate other types of knowledge and specific pieces of information into the language that the computer or the machine understands. The next process that follows perception is identification. After a human being has perceived a certain reality, he uses human reason to understand what the stimulus is. Reason, therefore, allows humans to sort, identify and understand the different stimuli that are perceived by his sensory functions. Naturally, since the human sensory functions can absorb vast combinations of external stimuli, the human reason can correspondingly understand and identify different combinations of perceived external stimuli. This allows humans the ability to understand and identify more sets of stimuli, which leads them to an extremely wide set of understanding of their perceived external reality. Machines, on the other hand, use data classification to identify and sort perceived external stimuli. Machines and computers base their identification and sorting processes to the information database that was programmed unto them, patterning the process to how human reason perceives external reality. The database is supposed to tell them that a certain stimulus stands for this, and that another stimulus stands for that. As a result, machines tend to specialize on types of knowledge and information that are defined in their information database, such that the possibility of non-identification occurs when a certain perceived stimulus is not part of the machine's information database. During these cases, the machine may not react to the perceived stimulus, since the machine does not understand what the stimulus is. The integration process follows identification. For humans, this is the part where identified information is assimilated as part of human knowledge. Humans store assimilated information in its memory, to use these as references for future decisions. With this, humans exhibit the ability to learn - to use stored information to eliminate mistakes that were made in the past, and to improve the outcome of future decisions. Just as human reason identifies and understands complex combinations of external stimuli, the memory function of humans can also store huge amounts of complex information over prolonged periods of time. Human knowledge, therefore, has an extremely wide coverage, resulting from the complexity that human perception and reason can absorb and understand respectively. Machines and computers mimic the thought-integration processes of humans through data accumulation. Computers likewise store understood information in their memories. Cutting-edge machines and computers are programmed mimic the human ability to use stored information in making future decisions. Machines with this ability are said to be programmed to learn and improve from their past errors, to mimic the resiliency displayed by the decision-making processes of humans. The information assimilation process that machines use, follow a basic rational principle that human reason follows - human reason always confirms the validity of the information that it identifies, before assimilating it as knowledge. With this, human reason discards a piece of information that contradicts other pieces of information that reason perceives as true. As Rand explains, "Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification" (934). Logic is intrinsic to humans, which is why machines and computers are programmed to follow the logical structure of information assimilation. In comparing the performance of the decision-making processes of humans and machines, it should be considered that humans sometimes experience memory limitations or lapses. Human memory is not perfect, which is why humans sometimes forget specific pieces of information when needed. This sometimes affects the efficiency and the validity of the human decisions. Moreover, the decision-making processes of humans sometimes exhibit inconsistencies that are affected by stimuli that may not necessarily be directly related to the decision at hand. Factors such as the psychological, emotional and physical state of the human being, during the time the decision was made, strongly affect the person making the decision. Thus, although humans exhibit the ability to process decisions in a logical manner, the execution of such may not always be perfect, as decisions may be subject to the person's state at the time of the decision. Machines and computers, on the other hand, will never experience memory lapses. Most machines can be maintained at perfect working conditions, and their decisions are purely dependent only on the decision factors that were programmed unto them. Their information database or memory will always be intact. Consequently, machines and computers will decide more consistently, as compared to humans. The highly specialized nature of the computer's decision-making processes, allows it to focus purely on the problem at hand, as well as the information surrounding it. As expected, there would be minimal errors, and the computer's decision will comprehensively isolate and consider all the factors surrounding the decision, that are in its information database. Thus, machines and computers will always decide consistently, predictably, and most probably, correctly. Humans programmed machines to work this efficiently and consistently. Thus, humans, as the creators of machines, gave the machines this intended purpose. As Agent Smith, the lead antagonist in "The Matrix" Trilogies demonstrates, machines do things perfectly because this is their intended purpose. Machines do things this way because they were programmed to do so, and they do these things devoid of choice; machines cannot choose whether or not to act perfectly or predictably on something - machines and computers will always make the optimal decision, based on the parameters that were set on their respective programs. Aside from this, machines do not attribute meanings to what they do. On the contrary, humans act based on choice. Humans act a certain way because they choose to do so, not because they were programmed by a code. Humans are capable of using reason to evaluate the effects of his actions, based on ethical and philosophical underpinnings. Thus, humans base the desirability and optimality of their decisions on how these decisions will benefit themselves. In certain cases, humans will base their decisions on how strongly their actions will uphold those which are of value to him - values such as truth, justice, peace and integrity. In addition, a human being acts with conviction and meaning. He is capable of making associations of what his decision means, vis-'-vis himself and his surroundings. This gives the human person the ability to pass ethical judgment regarding the righteousness, not only the scientific correctness, of his decisions and actions. Consequently, the human person is capable of giving moral validation to his actions. In conclusion, the main difference between man and machine is self-consciousness. Consciousness is defined as the ability to know that something exists, while self-consciousness is defined as the being's ability to know that he/it exists. The advancement of technology has allowed machines to mimic human consciousness and knowledge, such that machines can be made aware of external stimuli, to later on assimilate this information into knowledge. However, while a machine can be made aware that something exists, a machine is not intrinsically aware that it exists. In other words, the machine is not aware of its own existence. Therefore, the machine is not self-conscious. The machine's lack of self-consciousness leads to its inability to associate meaning into its decisions, as well as to its inability to make choices regarding its actions. Since the machine is not self-conscious, it cannot say the word "I." Because the machine cannot say the word "I", it cannot definitely say the phrase "I choose." An entity that is not self-conscious cannot have an identity, and an entity that does not have an identity cannot make a volitional choice, as it cannot refer to that being that made the choice. In simpler terms, the machine's lack of self-consciousness leads to its lack of identity, and ultimately, its inability to make volitional choices. This trickles down to the machine's inability to associate meanings into its decisions, as well as its inability to evaluate the ethical implications of its existence, as well as its decisions. In contrast, man associates a vast multitude of meanings to the different decisions and actions that he undertakes. His decisions are not only motivated by logical processes, but also by meaning and values that he attributes to his choices. The meaning that man associates to his decisions, gives depth to the choices that he will make, regardless of whether or not these choices are the optimal ones. Most importantly, a human person's ability to make choices emanates from his self-consciousness and self-identity. Man's awareness of himself gives rise to the ego, the "I" - an active entity that primarily drives human reason, knowledge, choice and action. Works Cited Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York: Signet, 1957. Read More